Many uncooked and unprocessed food products such as meat, poultry and seafood products, pose the risk of getting contaminated by hazardous pathogens. Efforts have been made to develop techniques for intercepting the presence or growth of such pathogens on the food products. Conventionally, such techniques facilitate reduction and/or elimination of the pathogens by causing surface decontamination of the food products. Some of the conventional techniques for reducing and/or eliminating the pathogens from the food products include ultra-high pressure treatment, heat treatment, chemical treatment, and treatment with pulsed electric fields and high energy.
However, most of the above-mentioned conventional techniques suffer from one or more disadvantages. In general, most of the conventional techniques are known to alter taste, texture or properties of a food product that is being sterilized. For example, the heat treatment technique involves application of heat to a food product, which may cause structural alterations in the food product, thereby adversely affecting taste and texture of the food product. Similarly, the chemical treatment technique involves treating a food product with one or more chemicals and such treatment may also affect taste and texture of the food product.
Conventional techniques involving application of high electric field and/or high energy usually include ionization of air present in vicinity of a food product. More specifically, an ionization chamber or a cabinet may be provided for enclosing the food product and a source of electricity may be used to produce ions, which may interact with pathogens contaminating the food product, for neutralization/destruction thereof. However, most of such techniques involving the principle of ionization use high voltages that may cause deleterious effect on the food product. More specifically, such techniques are believed to cause formation of free radicals in the food product, thereby rendering the food product toxic for consumption.
Further, the aforementioned conventional techniques have not been proven to be very effective for completely inactivating or destroying the pathogens contaminating the food products due to an inability thereof to cause irreparable damage to the pathogens. Furthermore, the aforementioned conventional techniques do not appear to kill all types of pathogens, and more specifically, molds and yeast. Moreover, most of the conventional techniques, such as the conventional techniques based on the principle of heat treatment, are time-consuming.
In addition to the aforementioned conventional techniques, another conventional but beneficial technique for decontaminating the food products involves irradiation of the food products by ultraviolet (UV) light. For the past few years, the UV light has been utilized to control microbial contamination in some medical and food industry areas. However, it is only recently that the technique using the UV light to reduce microbial population on the food products, such as surfaces of meats, and the like, have been developed. Further, various studies have shown that an exposure of the food products to the UV light neither has a deleterious effect on the taste, texture and color of the food products nor does it cause rancidity of the food products as the UV light does not induce production of oxidizing free radicals. Effectiveness of irradiating a food product by the UV light is primarily due to formation of thiamine dimers, which disrupt structure and functioning of genetic constituent of the pathogens, such as bacterial cells.
However, the technique based on irradiation of a food product by the UV light usually employs UV light being generated by a continuous excitation of a light source. Such a use of continuous excitation does not relate to production of a high peak power, which may be obtained using high electric field in the light source. As a result, UV light with a long wavelength but low intensity is being generated by the light source. Irradiation of the food product with such UV light having low intensity affects rate and extent of destruction of the pathogens. Accordingly, a technique employing pulsed power UV light has been developed for an effective destruction of the pathogens. However, such a technique, although effective to an extent, does not result in a hundred percent reduction or a near hundred percent reduction in the population of pathogens contaminating a food product.
Accordingly, there is a need for allowing an effective and rapid sterilization of food products, and more specifically, uncooked food products, in order to result in a hundred percent reduction or a near hundred percent reduction in population of pathogens contaminating the food products. Further, there is a need for providing techniques for sterilization of the food products that avoid deleterious effects on the food products in terms of causing toxicity and/or altering taste and texture of the food products. Furthermore, there is a need for enabling sterilization of the food products without using heat.